Trespassing of Boundaries and Unification of Differences Through Art

Eye for an eye

Eye for an Eye – ancient legal formula calling for revenge for harm gains a new meaning in Artur Żmijewski’s film and photographic series. The film features people with disabilities, who suffer from severe difficulties in their everyday lives as a result of amputations.

A temporary relief in their struggle with daily activities is brought by healthy people, who lend them parts of their own bodies. In order to make up for the deficiencies of the body with disability, they lock with it in an uncanny embrace. However, offering a healthy limb requires breaking the barriers of intimacy, i.e. touching the scar – the most sensitive part of the body after amputation.

Thus, Żmijewski’s film becomes a story of intimacy and ways of overcoming the mechanisms of exclusion.